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Jun 11 Velocio x Lela Rose Zinnia Collection

Pretty Damned Fast is excited to announce the launch of Velocio's newest kit: A collaboration between Velocio and NYC based fashion designer Lela Rose! Lela Rose is known for her bright colored collections and attention to fabrics, but is also an avid bike commuter! The result is a fun kit that is sure to make you stand out in a group ride (and in traffic).

The Zinnia Collection includes theZinnia Jersey and Zinnia Bib Short, sold as a bundle, as well as the Zinnia Wind Vest, a high fashion, high viz layer in a citrine colored pattern based on the Velocio Wind Vest. We love the inspiration of the Zinnia, a tough flower that is known to withstand even the hottest summer weather.

We interviewed Velocio's founder Kristy Scrymgeour to get the scoop on how the collaboration came to be.

What inspired you to start Velocio?

I’d been a cyclist myself when there were no women’s specific clothing. We wore small men’s sizes which never really had the perfect fit. When I started working with teams and I started my own team I spent a lot of time working with our clothing manufacturers, choosing fabrics and styles. It occurred to me that there was a missing piece in the market. A few brands had begun showing the world that what you wore on the bike could be stylish and make you feel better about how you looked but their line was predominantly men’s clothing and there were still missing performance elements from every brand we saw, men's or women's. The look of our team with our previous sponsors highlighted style and excitement. We were thrilled show off the professional life to those chasing an active lifestyle, all while wearing great looking clothing to wear that fit really well.

It became very clear that we could create a cycling apparel brand that does a really good job on performance, fit and style – with a focus on women. I’d been working with Brad Sheehan since my years at Highroad.. He’s a great designer who had some really good experience in cycling apparel as cycling is also his passion. He was also cool with focusing on women’s apparel first. Now we have a wide selection for both women and men. We will always start our ideas with what's best for a cyclist and then create strong lines for every rider.

What makes Velocio different?

I think my answer in the first question answers this. Our aim to is to be a brand that does things differently. It’s obvious in the way we focus on the women’s apparel first – but we also consider this concept with everything we talk about. With every piece we look at what has been done before and really focus on what we can do differently to make a particular item better or more unique. Our first priority is how a garment fits. The fit is so important because you’re active in this clothing and a well fitted cycling bib or jersey can make a huge difference to your ride. There are a lot of brands that look good, but how they feel after a long time on the bike is as key.

Can you tell us a bit about Lela Rose? How did you go about collaborating with her?

I spend a lot of my time in New York and Lela is a very passionate advocate for bikes for leisure and commuting. She rides to work every day on a very cool and unique commuter bike. Her kids ride with her to school in the middle of New York and she’s done a lot of great work advocating for cycling in the city so naturally our paths crossed. Her husband is an avid road cyclist and I met him quite a few times when the team was doing events in the city. When we started Velocio we wanted to reach outside the cycling community. The mantra of the team I run is to help get more women on bikes. Doing this collaboration projects a fashion designers like Lela is a great way to reach a great number of women not already in cycling's core culture. It's also fun.

The Lela Rose kit is a bit more feminine than Velocio's typical look. What inspired the design?

Lela is in high fashion. Her clothing is elegant and feminine and we wanted to bring her idea of a great looking design to the bike. At Velocio we go for the more classic look but we’re not afraid to be feminine. What Lela has designed is classic and feminine at the same time. There's this reaction in the cycling world against a pink it and shrink it mentality. There's been terribly designed flowers placed on kits to be women's without much thought to design or the craft of a kit. We gave Lela creative freedom and this was her vision which came from outside of cycling and wasn't bound by a reaction to these things . We love it and how it blends with the very technical performance focus of our clothing.